


Wings are for Flying

by onesickmind



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 11:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4744727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onesickmind/pseuds/onesickmind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Kevin/ Desert Bluffs Carlos wingfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wings are for Flying

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I'd try my hand at a wingfic. It's not the best thing I've written, but it has a certain beauty. Please check out my other fics!

“Pray to the Smiling God today.”

Lauren had given him his instructions, and of course Kevin had complied, with big sunny grin and happy compliance.

Kevin knelt in supplication after his broadcast and began his standard prayer. He felt the light, like always, pour into him.

And something more.

His chanting stopped abruptly in a cry as he felt searing pain. His back felt like it was being ripped open. Everything went white and bright before his eyes, he fell from his knees to the floor in convulsions, and there in his god's sunlight, he passed out.

 

**

 

“Kevin?” Mayor Pablo called as he entered his mansion. Kevin had texted him to come right away.

“Kevin isn't here,” said the doorman. 

“He said he was.”

“If he is, he came in a back entrance. We haven't seen him.”

The mayor brushed past him and went to his bedroom.

“Wait,” Kevin's voice came as he entered. He seemed to be in the adjoining bathroom.

“Kevin. What's wrong.”

“I, uh.” Kevin's voice was worried. “I... you're the first to know this. I drove myself and snuck in the back. You're the first to uh. To see. I wanted you to be the first. I need... Pablo. Please. Just... I don't know. I need you.”

“Come out. What's wrong?”

Kevin's face peered from the darkened bathroom, frightened. Then he stepped out. He was only wearing his slacks and shoes.

A pair of magnificent golden wings stretched from his shoulders. 

“The Smiling God's blessing,” Pablo gasped.

Kevin flushed. He wrapped his arms around his bare torso. “It's... Um. Is it okay?”

“It's more than okay,” Pablo said. He stepped forward, and reached out. “May I?”

Kevin turned his face away. “Yeah.”

He stroked a golden wing. The feathers were neatly arranged and soft. “Does it hurt?”

“It did. It was agony. But it doesn't hurt now.”

“Oh, Kevin. I'm sorry you went through that. But these... these are gorgeous.”

Kevin stretched and folded his wings awkwardly. “If you say so.”

“Can you fly?”

“I don't know. I drove straight to you.”

Pablo was silent for a while, gently stroking Kevin's wing. “I'm glad I saw them first.” He paused. “I mean. It means a lot to me. That you wanted it to be this way.”

“What else would I do?”

Pablo kissed him once, gently, on the lips. “This is a blessing from The Smiling God.”

“I know.” Kevin looked down and wrung his hands. “I'm scared.”

“Don't be. Hey. Shh.” Pablo wiped at some tears that had appeared beneath Kevin's eyes. “You have been chosen. Blessed. It means you're a true believer.”

Kevin's voice was strangled with sobs now as he choked out, “But I'm NOT.”

“Shhh, nobody's perfect. The Smiling God can see your sincerity.”

“I'm NOT!” Kevin covered his face. “Is this private. You have to. Turn it all off.”

The mayor waved away the security detail and used his black switch to shut down the surveillance. “It's off. Kevin. I know you doubt your faith, but the wings--”

“I never believed!” Kevin shouted. He backed away. “I've been faking! The smiles! The compliance! The easy demeanor! I'm not on board with The Smiling God! I'm a traitor! I'd be a spy if I were approached! But this town has been too thoroughly razed. I... I would still be fighting and resisting, but I gave in because I loved you. And I saw... just how futile it was. I could die or I could play along and keep you.”

Kevin panted at him, sharp teeth bared in a frightened frown. Pablo stared back.

“And these wings-- The Smiling God could not possibly have given them to me for my faith! If it knows the hearts of us humans at all, it knows I'm against it! It knows I'm a heathen! This is some trick, some curse, I've been marked for destruction and pain!”

Pablo stared, slightly shaking his head. Kevin sniffed hard and wiped his face. 

“I love you. And this. I know you worship The Smiling God. I know you might not be able to see me, hell, you might be obligated to kill me after what I've just said. You know what I am. A pretender and a traitor and a heathen. I... I'm really not sure if you would choose me over singing in The Smiling God's light. I uh. I don't... I don't want you to. I don't want you to endanger yourself. But I. I want you to know. And I guess I just. Simply needed you.”

Kevin stopped talking and cried for a while. Pablo approached him and gingerly put his arm around his shoulders.

“If I am to die,” Kevin could be heard articulating through the sobs, “I want you to do it.”

“Kevin.” 

Pablo hugged him close.

“None of us believes.”

“What?”

“Nobody is really joyful to worship the Smiling God,” Pablo said, wincing as the blasphemy crossed his lips. “We all pretend. We must. And you have been rewarded... for being a good pretender. And now you must praise him. More loudly than the rest.”

“I can't.”

“You must. With these wings--”

“Cut them off.”

“What.”

“Cut my wings off. You're the only one who has seen them. Cut them off. Nobody will know.”

“No.”

“You have to.”

“Kevin. The Smiling God put them there. It will put them there again.”

“Pablo! I--” Kevin looked around. Tears squeezed from his eyes. “Are you sure no one is listening?”

“Not even the Smiling God itself.”

“I... I wanted to escape with you.” Kevin's black eyes shone. “To the world you came from. Remember? Outside, where things like gods don't exist. Just escape from it all. Live like you. Become... mundane.”

Kevin flexed his wings and let out a cry. “But these trap me here! The hope is gone! I know nobody has wings in your world, Pablo, you told me that! So what am I? A fantasy embedded in a fantasy world? You have to cut these off. We have to leave, tonight. Pablo. Please.”

Pablo stood and stared for a very long time. 

“Pablo,” Kevin said. “I'm not happy here.”

Pablo stared a long time more. Then he said: “Okay.”

Kevin took a shuddering breath. He kissed him. 

Pablo said, “Get packed first. We'll cut them off. Then we'll run.”

**

It turned out Kevin had nothing at his home he was desperate to keep. He only wanted escape. He and Pablo picked out some clothes and toiletries for him, and packed them in a bag. Pablo loaded his car, announcing loudly to the security detail that they were attending private business in Night Vale.

Then the time came to cut off Kevin's wings.

Pablo stood for a long time first, looking at the beautiful golden wings that fidgeted nervously as Kevin stood in the center of the room, naked from the waist up, his eyes wide and body language afraid. He looked around, hugging himself, wings flexing slowly with their own grace. He looked glorious. The feathers nearly shone with their own light.

Pablo laid out his knives. 

“You're sure you don't want me to get anesthetic.”

“I don't want anything to happen between now and us leaving. Just cut them off. I'll handle the pain.”

“Okay. Lie on my bed.”

Kevin lay on his stomach. He buried his face in his arms with a frightened sniff.

“Are you sure you don't want to fly first?”

“I only want to be with you.”

**

There is a couple that lives in Lincoln, New Hampshire.

They are mixed race and gay, but nobody in the north really minds. A hispanic man with greying hair, and a white man with ordinary brown eyes and ordinary flat teeth and an ordinary voice. 

They go grocery shopping and check the mail and mow the lawn just like everyone else, but sometimes, when they sit in their yard, the children playing nearby can hear them talking of the most fantastic things. 

The white man especially, gets the most distant look when he stares off into space and remembers wherever it was he once lived.

He sometimes has no shirt in the summer, and on his shoulder blades, there are two long, thick scars.

The children say this man once had wings.

The adults say it takes great wisdom to know what to give up.

When he is with his husband, and you look in those ordinary brown eyes, and you see that ordinary smile, and you hear him laugh with his ordinary voice, you know that this has become the place where he belongs. 

And you wish that you could find something that is better than flying.


End file.
